Urbandale, Iowa, is the home of that $425M jackpot – Powerball’s “folksy and old-fashioned” site and staff

With that $425 million jackpot and a household name, Powerball must have a slick website and PR staff, right? Nope. Click on Powerball.com and prepare to go back in time. And if you think the antiquated design, creaky fonts and throwback ads are a hoot, check out the FAQ:

We have a very small staff here with no one who has the job of responding to letters. Here, your letter will likely be answered by the top guy, who works 24/7. He will give you a complete and straight answer but he can sometimes come off as a little abrupt in email, especially when he has too little time to spend on each letter. He also thinks that he is a comedian. We apologize in advance for him.

Intrigued, I called the “top guy” of the country’s most talked-about lottery… and he picked up the phone. No secretary, no message, an ordinary guy in Iowa.
“I couldn’t help noticing that, by Silicon Valley standards, your website is kind of folksy and old-fashioned,” I said.“We’re kind of folksy and old-fashioned,” said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association in Urbandale, Iowa. He runs a 12-person staff which leaves the fancy PR to the state lotteries. But when it comes to running the site and giving information in the FAQ, “we actually know the answers.”
What about having homespun humor in an FAQ about massive lottery jackpots? When it comes to that much money, does anyone ever fail to see the humor?
“People either laugh and appreciate it or become quite angry,” Chuck said.
Any plans to upgrade or redesign the site? Nope.
“We can’t compete with cool,” Chuck said.
Actually, some in Silicon Valley think the Powerball site is throwback cool — almost like a greasy-spoon diner.
“I think it’s definitely cool that it’s still around and operating how they best know how to,” said Nick Cicero lead strategist at Livefyre.
Something tells me the winners of the $425 million jackpot won’t mind the website’s age at all.Follow Jeff Elder on Twitter — @jeffelder